Bloomington, IL - The Olympia FFA Chapter was well represented at both the Section 9 FFA Public Speaking and Job Interview Career Development Events (CDE). Logan Demling won the Varsity Extemporaneous speech with his topic on maximizing crop yields. Reed Naughton, Kylie Britt and Keagan Meserole represented Olympia FFA in the JV extemporaneous division with Naughton taking first place. The extemporaneous division requires students to draw a topic and then prepare a speech in 30 minutes. The speech should be 4-6 minutes long. All students answer 5 minutes of questions following their speech.
In Varsity Prepared Speaking, Anna Kindred placed second with her speech about Avian Flu and Brooke Rogers placed fourth with her speech about media in agriculture. In the JV division, Rylee Robb placed first with her speech about showing livestock. These students wrote and delivered an original speech that was 6-8 minutes long and answered questions from the judges.
Tyler Carroll was second in the FFA Creed speaking event and Kailey Johnson placed fifth. These freshmen FFA students recited the five-paragraph Creed that is so important to our organization. They also answered five minutes of questions from the judges. Logan, Reed, Anna, Rylee and Tyler all qualified for the District 2 public speaking event in May.
In the Job Interview competition students completed a cover letter and resume for judging prior to the event. At the contest, students completed an application, phone interview, personal interview, and follow-up letter. FFA members were judged at both the Varsity and JV levels. Reed Naughton (varsity) did very well in representing Olympia FFA and placed fifth. Sarah Larkin placed fourth in the JV competition.
FFA Advisor, Bryce Hoffman stated, “I’m very proud of each of these students for working hard to compete. Most students are very intimidated by public speaking, but not this group. The skills learned from these events will help them so much in their future careers. I look forward to working with them as they advance to the next level.”